HOMESTEAD, Fla. — As more comes to light after the shooting at sea in Cuba, investigators are finding links to Homestead, Miami Lakes, Big Pine Key, Clearwater, Tampa, and other areas of South Florida.
The four Cubans living in the U.S. who died, according to Cuban officials, were Pavel Alling Peña, Michael Ortega Casanova, Ledián Padrón Guevara, and Hector Duani Cruz Correa.
Tracking the boat, registered in Florida as FL7726SH, took investigators to the owner’s house in Miami Lakes. But he was in Big Pine Key, where deputies suspected Correa, 42, a father who lived in Homestead and had family in Cuba, had stolen the boat.
The six who were injured, according to Cuban officials, were Cristian Ernesto Acosta Guevara, Conrado Galindo Sariol, José Manuel Rodríguez Castelló, Leordan Enrique Cruz Gómez, Amijail Sánchez González, and Roberto Álvarez Ávila.
Family members described the men as poorly trained activists, The Washington Post reported. Ernesto Díaz, 86, a veteran counterrevolutionary, told The Associated Press the men were martyrs.
Alling Peña, 45, was a poet and registered Republican who lived in Clearwater; and Ortega Casanova, 54, and Cruz Gómez lived in Tampa, the Tampa Bay Times and The Miami Herald reported.
Galindo Sariol, 58, is a father and former political prisoner, Marti Noticias reported. Padrón Guevara, 25, lived in Houston, CiberCuba and Univision reported.
A selfie video a reporter with Univision shared on Facebook showed Padrón Guevara, who had a tattoo of a rifle on his neck, at a gun store talking about rifles.
“This is a machine, leader,” Padrón Guevara said in Spanish during the video.” Later adding, while holding a semi-automatic Zastaba ZPAP M70, “This is for kids to train.”
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